Nutty (for) Granola?

September 13, 2011

The girl who cried “I don’t like granola!” is making granola… again. I made granola a few months ago, for the first time ever, and remember not feeling anything strong either way. The kicker is that, after thinking about it for an embarrassingly long time, I have what seems like a vague and distant memory of being sad when I had eaten it all. Time-wise, it didn’t make any sense. Why was my initial dislike so bright and vivid, and then my learned appreciation so small and distant?

The answer is pretty simple: I’m so stubborn that it affects how I remember things. That’s pretty ridiculous. Excuse me while I stomp my feet on the ground like a two year old and throw a frustration-induced tantrum. Phew. Okay. Time to put on my big girl pants. I decided to try another granola recipe today, for Breakfast Tuesday, just to see what would happen. Would I try it and be dissatisfied, only to gobble it up within a week? Would I like it upon initial taste-testing? Would I not like it all? I was pretty excited to find out.

I mixed all my ingredients. Preheated the oven. Melted the butter and honey. Tossed everything together. Spread it out on baking sheets. Put them in the oven. Crossed my fingers. I watched it like a hawk and stirred it every three minutes instead of five, but to no avail. The granola starting burning in the oven about eight minutes before it was supposed to come out. So I took it out of the oven early and let it cool. I tried it and I liked it! Despite the small, burnt walnut pieces and the fact that it was, indeed, granola, I liked it! I’m glad to see that my stubbornness, while getting in the way of lots of things, will not get in the way of enjoying my breakfast on this beautiful Tuesday morning.